A degree of complexity hitherto reserved to TBS games has been applied wonderfully in this RTS.
After seeing the mediocre scores professional reviewers like Gamespot put on this game, I was really wondering whether or not should I buy this game. I had loved the original(however lent to me by a friend ; I bought it right after I gave it back to him), but the less-than-average score was still unnerving me. I took the risk, and the enjoyment I got(and still get) out of this game was the deciding factor to prove to me risks are good. I had good old "DIY" liquid about to the neck, from torturing evildoers that thought it would be a good idea to forage in your granaries to overtaxing the population with "extra cruel" taxes but buying them off with jousts, traveling fairs and generous ale distribution through my inns so to not resent the effect of unpopularity. Good old "bread and games" tactics that helped Caesar with his empire helped me here too.
The empire management and construction is very thorough. Instead of the good old system of "build one farm, have your people mysteriously nourished while not waiting for the crops, and never resenting eating the same thing continually", we have here a quite complex food distribution system. Yes, instead of the farmer's house hiding a whole mill in his house, you'll now have to build one so people that specialise in growing wheat can get it milled into flour. Keeping with the realism, that same farmer won't come with the farm, and the millboys won't come with the mills. Rather, you'll have to assign citizens to these jobs(although the game automatically does so, which is convenient).
Citizens won't come in your empire unless you keep your people happy. Who wants to live in a kingdom where the king abuses his citizens? A statistic called "popularity" does just that. Keep it over 50, and people will swarm to your little feudal castle. Should it fall under 50, however, you shall feel the evil waves of emigration as people will desert you to find a better life elsewhere. Declaring war and capturing other kingdoms won't affect your popularity, however, which is a good thing. Only 8 things affect it : "taxes", "food", "rats", "gong(which is a polite term for feces on the ground)", "crime", "ale", "religion" and "entertainment". Strangely, your popularity will go down if you put even low taxes, apparently these people aren't as accustomed to taxes as we are today. You will also need to keep these citizens working, be it cutting wood, using falcons to kill rats, hunting for meat or shoveling feces on the ground to keep your empire tidy. Speaking of that, let's grease honour. You gain honour points every time you keep justice over the castle or that you allow your peasants a good life. With honour points, you can train knights and mercenaries.
As this game revolves around castle-building, you will find the options even more diverse here. You can choose between a cheap wood barricade that even infantry can demolish, to single-, double- and even triple- layered and crenellated stone walls, which are invincible(unless the enemy has siege). You have the choice between cheap lookout towers, tall and weak, to warn yourself of possible invasions, low-laying bastions for quick defence and surveying, square towers to put about anywhere, round towers to keep an eye on the sides of your castle and the almighty great tower to keep near the front doors. You can also have a moat(and the appropriate drawbridge if you build a large gatehouse), rows of pitch for your archers to light, so invading forces suffer a burning agony, and various wall-mounted defence, from cheap stone baskets for the non-bow-toting infantry to throw to almighty burning logs to squish enemy units, as well as various traps to ensure no unit will even get past the first wall. Just to be more evil, you could also build a staircase to your walls and put archers on it to shoot wandering enemies.
Likewise, combat is as diverse as building your empire. It has been historically proven that shooting arrows on a stone wall will do about as much damage as throwing snowballs at a tank. Therefore, a good tip would be abstaining to use archers to attack stone fortifications. Instead, clear the enemy tower garrison and hijack the tower to use as your own, practically reversing the enemies' defences against him. You will also need various siege engines to pierce enemy walls and ultimately reach the keep to checkmate the Lord. Strategies that worked in real life will work here, including ambushes, hit-and-run, and even a full retreat to the relative safety of your castle. Also, realism is kept with the weapons : archers will not hurt swordsmen incased in armour worth a fortune substantially, while crossbowmen equipped with bolts will pierce through the armour and deliver much more damage. Ballistas will knock back units on their backs with a little flight (try to make them fall from the walls of your castle or your towers, more damage that way)when they do not outright kill. All in all, great attention was put to realism as well as balance.
As with job buildings, barracks does not include secret cloning vats to create fresh humans ready to take the arms. Rather, your army is created from your jobless citizens near the campfire, over at your keep. That is, if your armoury can supply them. You will also need to equip your army yourself, brewing fletchers, armourers, tanners, polemakers and blacksmiths in your populace to create the various weapons needed for a competent army. No, no more armouries with infinite stock hidden in the bowels of your barracks! From the lowly spearmen(with a rather goofy voice, might I add, it makes me laugh everytime I hear them say "men at arms, ADVANCE!" or "remember your training!") to knights(which can be mounted and dismounted at will), you will have the full medieval plethora of soldiers to work with, including powerful crossbowmen("pull up these weapons, you dogs!") to "your loyal archers"(which are the coolest unit in the game in my opinion, but then again, I'm a big archery fan) and laddermen. Also, when you have the building, you can train mercenaries, whom you do not need to equip but come with a huge fee in gold.
All of this done in an incredibly gorgeous realm with no lag whatsoever with a good machine, and great music and sound. I can almost affirm that you will dream of epic Stronghold 2 after playing this game. That is, if you're a DIY kind of guy. If not, you might as well pass this title and move on.
*if there's any spelling errors or grammar mistakes, I blame it on my French mother tongue*